LAFMS: The Lowest Form of Music "The
unearthing of the LAFMS recordings is experimental rock history at it's
most historical and hysterical - a completely bizarro and further-out
counterpart to the L.A. punk scene." ~ Thurston Moore
~@~@~
The
LAFMS was a lightning rod for pre-punk & non-punk musical whatsis
from all over the globe. This compilation deals primarily with the
associations core members and their good works, but one of the LAFMS'
prime functions was to transform itself (via "mere" extended activity)
into a kind of magneto-art-sump for universal noise oddballs. Its name
became a kind of secret handshake that allowed culturally
disenfranchised puds & pudettes to identify each other.
In a
way, the LAFMS bridged the years between the appearance of Meet the
Residents in '74 and 1/2 Japanese's first EP in '77; linking the
Euro-rooted sophistication of early '70s American experimentation to
the insanely intuitive noise gushing that came about after punk
unlocked the undergrounds id. The sound of Smegma was the exact kind of
thing that every isolated suburban Beefheart fan imagined himself or
herself producing in the company of true peers. The same could be said
of Le Forte Four, the Doo-Dooettes, Airway, and most of the other units
that the LAFMS extruded.
Improvisation, concrete assemblage,
kraut-moosh, tinkling, noise, and weirdness for the sake of weirdness
were all perceived as hallmarks of the LAFMS ethos. In a year as dull
as 1975, the wee-est taste of meat that strong could be enough to
separate your head from your body. Forever. Again. For those who were
brave enough to send away for LAFMS records or tapes, its name will
gawp forever as a wide portal to a parallel cosmos that could only be
suspected in the years before the "cassette revolution" (so called).
And since almost no one has ever heard all the material that makes up
this voluminous compendium, it is guaranteed to be its own set of trap
doors to a very special void. ~Byron Coley, Northampton, MA. 1994
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